Paris Saint-Germain vs Monaco. French Ligue 1.
Parc des PrincesAttendance43,581.
Monday 22 April 2019 00:19, UK
Kylian Mbappe scored a hat-trick as Paris Saint-Germain celebrated winning the Ligue 1 title with a 3-1 victory against Monaco.
After failing to regain their crown in the past three matches, drawing one and losing two, PSG's sixth title in the last seven seasons was confirmed prior to Sunday night's game after Lille's goalless draw at Toulouse earlier in the day.
It was not quite a party atmosphere at the Parc des Princes, owing to the fire this week at Notre Dame in Paris. PSG replaced the player names on the back on their shirts with the name of the cathedral while the front sported an image of the partially destroyed landmark.
During the pre-match warm-up, Mbappe greeted Paris firefighters and their children on the pitch.
Rony Lopes should have ruined PSG's coronation by giving Monaco the lead after seven minutes but he scuffed his shot when through on goal, allowing Alphonse Areola to get a hand on the ball and make a save.
Mbappe punished his former club shortly afterwards, using his pace to get behind the visiting defence and on to Moussa Diaby's perfectly-weighted pass before firing the ball past replacement goalkeeper Diego Benaglio and into the roof of the net.
Monaco responded well to falling behind and a sustained spell of possession inside the PSG half resulted in Aleksandr Golovin sending an effort narrowly wide.
Mbappe missed a glorious chance for his second goal just after the half-hour mark but he made amends in the 38th minute with a tidy finish into the bottom corner of the net after exchanging passes with Dani Alves.
Monaco were still a threat and Gelson Martins worked Areola with a shot from the edge of the area that the goalkeeper had to push wide.
The start of the second half saw the return of Neymar from injury, coming on as a substitute for Layvin Kurzawa. The Brazil star had missed three months with a fractured metatarsal but his comeback could be timely with PSG in the French Cup final against Rennes next weekend.
Mbappe saw an effort strike a post after 53 minutes but he would only have to wait another two minutes to get his hat-trick. The 20-year-old had a simple tap-in from an Alves cut back to notch his 30th goal of the campaign.
A goal-line clearance from Marquinhos denied Martins a goal for Monaco and the PSG defender was at his best again shortly afterwards to nick the ball away from Carlos Vinicius as he looked to shoot.
Golovin could only head the ball over the crossbar when he should have hit the target at the very least but he got his goal with 10 minutes remaining, using his strength to hold off a defender before poking a low shot into the net from
12 yards.
Thilo Kehrer could be an injury doubt for the French Cup final after the defender hobbled from the pitch holding his hamstring in the final minutes, leaving PSG to finish the match with 10 men.
